I’ve never been much of a beef fan — I’ll take the surf over the turf any day — but ever since I first went to Olga’s as a kid and had the Original Olga, I’ve been crazy about lamb. (I’d love to try mutton, but I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m in [...]
It’s summer, it’s hot (since when was Detroit in the middle of the Sahara?), and I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to spend much time over a hot stove right now. Hence, this soup! Although it involves a bit of simmering time, the heat is on low and you don’t have [...]
Continue reading about Cool Moroccan Flavors to Spice Up Your Summer
Assuming you have a sizable and sharp knife (an 8″ chef’s knife is ideal), winter squash is a great wintertime ingredient: it’s plentiful, versatile, and inexpensive. You can roast it and eat straight out of the skin, or you can simmer cut-up chunks of it in water or broth and then drain it and mash [...]
Continue reading about Making Winter Velvet Out of Winter Squash
Like Spanish tapas, the Arabic tradition of mezze involves small dishes that are hugely flavorful. Most are very simple to prepare — in fact, there are plenty of single-ingredient mezze, like the olives pictured here. There are also two- and three-ingredient small dishes that just involve a bit of spice or oil added to the [...]
Continue reading about You Can’t Go Wrong with Roasted Eggplant
I just love northern African cuisine — it’s fragrant and nuanced, yet easy to prepare and dependent on inexpensive staples like rice, lentils, and legumes. You may need to purchase a few spices to make your dishes more authentic, but spices last for six months to a year if you store them in a cool [...]
Holidays = parties = dips. And bringing along a classic dip that you know everyone will like is a sure-fire bet. It’s also fun to add a little something extra to that kind of dip, something that will be just different enough to make people ask you for your recipe. It occurred to me that [...]
I know not everyone is going to be with me on this one, but poached eggs have always been my favorite. Scrambled eggs are nice, and so are hard-boiled eggs, but for me, the creamy poached-ness is where it’s at. Poached eggs are easy to make, too: just crack an egg into boiling water, set [...]
Cumin is that unmistakable flavor in Indian curries and many Mexican dishes, from the Americanized faijita to the more-traditional enchiladas. Specifically, it is the seed of the flowering Cuminum cyminum plant. You’ll also find it in the Indian tandoori (a tandoori is a type of oven; hence, tandoori refers to any dish cooked in it), [...]
